Mikel Brown Jr. left Summer League looking like a player ready to matter right away for the Brooklyn Nets, and the bigger reason for that optimism is even simpler than the box score: his back is no longer a concern.
The No. 6 pick said he feels like his old self again as he heads into his rookie season, putting to rest the questions that followed him after a back injury cut short the second half of his freshman year at Louisville.
“I feel great. I feel [like] myself again.
I feel like how I felt before in preseason before we played at Louisville,” Brown said on the Cousins Podcast with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady. “No symptoms, no pain at all.
Obviously, you've got daily soreness. You know, right after a game, you're gonna be sore regardless.
Some of the things that I really learned from that situation were, one, adversity is going to come your way. It is inevitable, so you might as well just get used to it because you're going to hit adversity at some point again.
“And two, I also learned how to prioritize what I needed to. I was kind of prioritizing getting back on the court as soon as possible, and that didn't help at all… Just staying on top of it.
Even if I feel great, I'm still doing stuff on my back just to make sure it stays this way. I think that's what I really learned at Louisville.
When I got back, I was like, “All right, I'm fine.' Then it came right back to bite me in my ass at the beginning of March.
I'm staying on [top of it] now.”
That confidence showed up in Las Vegas. Brown, a 6-foot-5 guard, answered the health questions by flashing the athletic burst and scoring punch that made him one of the top names in the Class of 2025.
His Louisville résumé still pops, even with the injury interruption. The 20-year-old averaged 18.2 points and 4.7 assists while shooting .410/.344/.844 in 21 games, and he had one especially loud night against NC State, when he poured in 45 points and hit 10 threes in a win.
Brooklyn has been here before with a back issue, though. Ben Simmons’ struggles to stay on the floor after arriving in the James Harden trade helped bring the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving era to an end, so the franchise knows the risk. Even so, the Nets did their homework on Brown before drafting him.
Now he’s set to be part of the next wave in Brooklyn. Brown is expected to team with former No. 8 pick Egor Demin in what the Nets hope becomes their backcourt of the future. Demin also turned heads at Summer League, averaging 21.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists while making 22 of 29 two-point attempts, a 75.9 percent clip, across five games in Sacramento and Las Vegas.
Unless Brooklyn makes more moves before the season, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle and Day'Ron Sharpe will fill out the rest of the starting group. The Nets open preseason on the road Oct. 6 against the Charlotte Hornets, then see the Hornets again in their regular-season opener on Oct. 21 in Brooklyn.
In Other News...
Mikel Brown Jr. Is Giving Nets Fans Real Reason To Believe
For a Nets franchise still looking to reconnect with the kind of optimism that once came more naturally, Mikel Brown Jr. offered a promising glimpse in Summer League. Brooklyns highest draft pick since the move from New Jersey produced 15.0 points and 4.0 assists, enough to give the organization a little more confidence that it may have found a guard worth building around. Projected to be the starting point guard for the 2026-27 season, Brown arrives with the kind of profile that can steady a rebuilding team if the growth keeps coming.
Sean Marks has already pointed to Browns basketball IQ, versatility and athleticism as traits that can matter right away, and that matters for a Nets team trying to piece together its next core. The performance did not answer every question, of course, but it did give fans something real to attach to beyond draft-night hope. What Brown still has to show is how all of that translates once the games start counting for real, when the spotlight gets brighter and the expectations grow louder. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Suddenly Have More To Prove Than Vegas Expects
The Nets have spent the offseason trying to change the conversation, adding new pieces like Julius Randle and Mikel Brown Jr. as they look to steady a roster that has not given them much reason for optimism in recent years. The goal is clear enough: get better now, develop as they go and build toward a playoff return by 2027.
Still, the outside market has not moved much. Preseason projections have Brooklyn sitting at 24.5 wins, a number that suggests the league is waiting to see proof before buying into the upgrade. For a team with more talent on paper and a mandate to develop, that gap between expectation and belief is where the season will start to matter. [Read more 🡒]